When articles are packaged in a container or box for shipping there frequently are void spaces in the container. Protective packaging material for articles of different sizes and shapes is commonly used to cushion articles during shipping. There are numerous types and forms of packaging material for this purpose including waste paper, embossed paper, laminated bubble paper and plastic beads, known as peanuts. These forms of cushioning material do not always provide the cushioning needed when shipping and are generally one-use items which are thrown away after use.
In seeking better protective packaging materials various forms of air inflated cushions have been suggested. One such example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,123 to Pharo which discloses an inflatable bag having a pouch for retaining an article and adapted to be rolled-up to assume a spiralled configuration for cushioning the article. Such bag is inflated after the article is placed in the pouch, the air bag rolled around the package and placed in a shipping container. Another example of an inflatable packaging cushion is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,663 to Heinrich, which discloses an inflatable cushion comprising a plurality of joinable flexible bladders. A further example of an inflatable packaging cushioning is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,743 to Presnick who discloses thermoplastic bags defining an inflation chamber inside of a box. An improvement in air inflatable packaging material is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,157 to Pozzo which discloses various forms of inflatable cushions serving to protect one or more sides and/or ends of an article. These inflatable packaging cushions do not always protect all of the six sides of an article with a single cushion.
The disadvantages of the prior art packaging materials discussed above are overcome by use of the inflatable packaging cushion of the present invention as hereafter described.